I chose Tuesday — which wasn’t really a typical day because it was Bloggiesta, but it was very oriented toward my book blog so I thought it would be a fun one to examine.

6:30. Early rise because we had a plumber coming to install shut-offs. We’re doing a powder room renovation, right now, but the plumber was here to fix things in a way that our next renovation will go more smoothly.

Drew water in the bath for the toilet, cleaned the kitchen while I had water to do it, filled the electric tea kettle, and filled a couple of pots in case we needed to do a bit of washing while the water was off.

7:00. Updated the exercise, weight loss, and Beck book threads at the 3 Fat Chicks forum — my major support network for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as a recovering overeater.

Read email and checked Facebook.

8:15. Oops! It’s trash day. Took out the trash.

8:30. Ate breakfast while reading Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn on my phone. Usually, I have three books going — print ones at the table and in the bath, plus one on my phone for wherever. But, this renovation project is kind of stressful so I keep going back to Sharon Shinn, an author I find incredibly calming.

9:00. Promoted the Readers’ Workout post by tweeting to participants. While I was there I tweeted for #Bloggiesta the links of two bloggers who are looking for input on their new meme ideas:

9:30. Added a new member to the ever-growing mailing list for the Community for Understanding and Hope (CFUH) Book Group — I usually call it the Diversity Book Club on this blog for clarity.

10:00 – 3:00. Writing Bee! Writing Bee is the name that a friend and I have given to a twice-weekly virtual writing date that we’ve been doing for several years now. Most of the time I write, natch, during the Writing Bee. But, for Bloggiesta, I spent the time doing blog and social media chores. Since a platform is a vital component of a modern writing career, we consider those tasks fair game for our Writing Bees.

10:00. Commented on ten more Bloggiesta sign-up posts, including Florinda’s at the 3 R’s Blog where I learned about the Day in the Life project. Visited bloggers who commented on my blog in the first 24 hours or so of Bloggiesta.

11:30. Found the three e-books lurking in my email and downloaded them to the appropriate devices where they might actually get read. Made note of them on a Trello board to prompt the reading and help me schedule deadlines. (I’ve been using Trello since the beginning of the year, so I’m really looking forward to the mini-challenge on Trello put together by Kassiah at Pretty Sassy Cool.) This was all messy and awkward because I don’t deal with e-books enough to be very comfortable with my devices or the apps. But I got there!

12:07. The water’s back on! Fixed and ate lunch.

12:45. Found the four review requests lurking in my email. Most review requests get deleted immediately. Any request that remains held some interest for me. I decided to remove two, request the third, and sign up for a tour of the fourth.

2:00. Distracted by a long conversation with Rick, a friend of ours who came by to look at the plumbing and powder room, and the contractor working on the powder room. But, we decided how we wanted the tile laid out so it wasn’t a wasted distraction.

2:30. Archived and deleted old emails related to the blog and tracked down the winner of my most recent giveaway who hadn’t responded to the original email.

3:00. Writing Bee was over, but I wanted to make up for the time I spent chatting, so I completed Suey’s mini-challenge on Twitter by trying out Twubs. To test it, fully, of course, I had to chat a bit with other people who were hanging out on the #Bloggiesta hashtag.

3:30. Took a break, ate a snack, and cleaned the kitchen with more than the normal amount of appreciation for running water.

3:50. Revised the CFUH schedule to accommodate two leaders who wanted to swap months. Sent the updated schedule to the mailing list. Requested the next book for myself from the library.

Comments

A Day in the Life of a Book Blogger — 35 Comments

I understand your joy about getting the water back on. We just got the electricity back in our living room yesterday after a few days out! You know what they say about not really appreciating things until they’re gone…:)

Very productive day! I see several tasks that you mention that I desperately need to add to my To Do list – especially downloading books that are hiding in my email. I know there’s at least 2 there. Sounds like a busy day! I always hate any kind of plumbing issue that involves the water being turned off. It always makes me think of about 10 tasks that absolutely must be done that require water!

You did accomplish a lot! Loved the water issue sharing, although I’m sure it was a little annoying for you. We renovated our entire previous house before we sold it to build the one we live in now. And we lived in it the whole time the guys were working on it. Words cannot describe it. I told my husband he missed most of it while he was at work. I don’t think I’ll do that again – living in it while renovating, but I have much, much sympathy for the whole process. 😉

Thank you for sharing your day! You got a lot accomplished! We tend to forget to put the trash out until the first minute too. It’s nice to know I am not the only one who reads over breakfast. 🙂 I really need to get back to exercising. I was so faithful to it before my surgery, but since I was given the okay to start again I just haven’t been able to maintain a regular schedule.

We were forgetting the trash and recycling so much I finally had to add a reminder to my Todoist that goes off on Sunday/Thursday nights. That’s been so helpful. Looks like a busy, fun day — I’m going to check out Trello, looks cool.

You are so organized Joy!! But glad that your water starting working midday. And I agree with Tanya–I think sometimes we don’t realize just how much time we spend promoting! The events can be fun but very time-filling. Thanks for playing along Joy! 🙂

I love virtual working dates! I seem to get so much more done when I know someone else is working, too. I’ve been away from really regular blogging for a while, but reading about your Bloggiesta activities reminds me of how much time can go toward it. I’m looking forward to sinking back into this community and all its events 🙂

It’s so great how you work in blogging things throughout the day – I feel like I’m usually scrambling to find time at the end of the day just to visit blogs – and it’s getting harder to also find the time to write posts and visit twitter. Watching Once Upon a Time while doing some exercises sounds like a great idea! 🙂